The Capitol Building Could Have Had a Giant Chicken On Top

Jason, Stephanie, Ethan and I put out a daily newsletter called Watercooler Ammo. This weekend we'll be sharing a few recent editions. If you'd like this kind of thing delivered to your inbox each morning, subscribe here!

Check out these design proposals for some of Washington D.C.'s most famous landmarks. From a giant chicken weather vane meant to adorn the federal building, to putting a George Washington statue on top of the monument, to a pyramid-style Lincoln Memorial, the designs and blueprints are all a part of the National Building Museum's incredible exhibition Unbuilt Washington.

Poking around the collection is pretty fun (try here). And while some of the images are just plain wacky, it's intriguing to think about how different the city might have looked had a few of these changes been implemented-especially if city planners had run with Leon Krier's notion of flooding the Mall and then creating Venice-style canals between the buildings.

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